Dive certification/vacation in Florida, early March

[gryffin]

Hello all:

My husband and I just finished our pool work for our PADI OW certification. We are planning a trip to Florida in early March to do the open water referrals and then a little more diving before coming home to New Hampshire. We are talking to a private instructor in Ft. Lauderdale about spending a couple of days there for the OW referral dives. Then, we'd go to Key Largo for the rest of the time.

I have been researching shops in Key Largo. An alternate option is that the Fort Lauderdale instructor has offered to come to Key Largo and even suggested we might want to do the Advanced Open Water with him there.

Having never been I've never been to the Florida keys and being completely new at diving, I don't know how many days to plan on staying there and diving. Also, not sure how far in advance to book the diving. The Advanced Open Water seems like a bit much to take on so soon after Open Water, but we are considering taking an additional course to increase our confidence and skills- maybe the Peak Performance Buoyancy one.

Any suggestions regarding any of the above would be great. Also, what should we expect to need for exposure clothing during the second week of March?

Thanks!

 

[boulderjohn]

Because you cannot do more than 3 training dives in one day, it takes a minimum of two days to do the OW dives, and it takes a minimum of two days to do the AOW dives. There can be some overlap, so it is theoretically possible to do both in a total of three days, but I would not advise it. If you are planning to be there for a typical week's vacation, you could easily do both certifications. Many people do indeed do AOW immediately after OW.

If you have already identified an independent instructor for the diving, let that instructor do most of the planning for you. I work for a shop here in Colorado, but I spend most of each winter in South Florida. I have done independent certification dives for visiting friends there. When doing so, I scouted out the best deals for that training among the local shops and boats. There are a lot of independent instructors in the area, and the shops and boats have policies designed to attract that market. Your instructor can get deals on equipment rental and boat fees, and I would hope that he or she would make deals that would best benefit both of you. With the shop I mostly use for my training, the deals only work if the instructor does all the scheduling and makes all the payments.

You don't have to book any of this far in advance at all. Once again, you might want to let your instructor take the lead. For example, I will likely be doing some more advanced training just north of Fort Lauderdale this winter, and I will look at boat schedules and select ones that look good for what I need to do; in fact, I will likely request that an operator do specific dive sites on specific days, so I will be getting a custom schedule. In your case, dive sites suitable for OW and AOW training are so common that customizing is unnecessary and little needs to be planned in advance.

There is a danger in getting too committed too far ahead of time. It is very possible that you can run into bad weather, particularly high winds, that time of the year. Prepare to be flexible. For that reason, you might tell the instructor that you MIGHT do the AOW dives if the weather for the whole week is favorable; it should be no trouble to make that decision for sure once you are there.

---------- Post added December 21st, 2015 at 09:53 AM ----------

One more thing--I think Key Largo is better for OW training than Fort Lauderdale. They have a huge number of very nice shallow water sites perfect for the shallower OW dives.

 

[wspalding]

I would consider flying out of West Palm Beach to go home and diving a couple days up there and not spend the entire trip in the keys. If you would like to see sharks, the lemons should be up in Jupiter in March, and they are pretty cool. There are some really nice dives a little south of Jupiter in Palm Beach that are shallow and nice. It is also worth spending a day at the Blue Heron Bridge doing a shore dive. I find diving Key Largo is ok, but I really prefer the Palm Beach coast.

 

[IVC]

I'll just chime in on "advanced open water" since I am in somewhat similar situation. I got OW certified a few months back in Kona, did a local boat trip to Catalina (CA) then decided to do AOW.

Advanced open water is not really "advanced." It exposes you to additional aspects of diving beyond the very basics you learn in OW. It's a nice way to keep doing various tasks under water instead of just going for a joy ride. You still get to see all the interesting things, but you also take some time to do the extra tasks that are part of your "adventure dive." At the end, you won't be in any way "specialized" or "advanced," but you will have an overview of different activities you can pursue if you like them. You'll also get to dive with an instructor who can answer all your questions, same as OW, instead of being on your own.

I am quite enjoying my AOW dives in Southern CA since they include extra tasks from finding parking to "hiking" steep steps while making sure you didn't forget anything. Even just that aspect makes one think a bit more and get much more organized.

In short, given a chance, going for AOW might be a good idea if (1) you want to dive more, and (2) you don't feel uncomfortable during/after OW.

 

[TMHeimer]

We spend a chunk of winter on the north Gulf coast. I bring my 7 mil wetsuit and shorty. Sometimes I just wear the top to the 7 mil. Up there on the "tundra" the water starts to warm up toward 65F in March (I would guess over 70 in S. FL.). Depends on cold tolerance. Check NOAA for current water temp. in Ft. Lauderdale shortly before you go.

 

[gryffin]

We are flying in and out of Fort Myers- my husband's parents have rented a house in Cape Coral and we will spend time with them both before and after the diving part of our vacation. We have about 11 days total in Florida. I was having trouble finding certification options near Cape Coral, and so we have been looking at the Fort Lauderdale/Key Largo since that is a close enough drive and doesn't involve a flight. We were originally going to go on a cruise, but decided that we want to focus on the diving for this trip so we will be better prepared to dive the next time that we cruise.

TMHeimer - where on the Gulf Coast do you dive?

As far as temperatures go, we are used to swimming in lakes in New Hampshire when the outdoor temperatures are in the mid-upper 70s, so water temperatures in the 70s are pretty normal for us. But I don't own a wet suit and am trying to decide what I might want to purchase.

 

[boulderjohn]

When I dive in that area at that time of the year, I use a 5mm wet suit. I am plenty warm with it. If you are not sure, bring a hood. You will be amazed at how much of a difference that makes.

 

[TMHeimer]

TMHeimer - where on the Gulf Coast do you dive?

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Over the years, FL panhandle from Panama City to the AL line, Perdido Pass, AL, and West of there to Biloxi MS (anything W. of Gulf Shores, AL means basically 10' depth (if that) & poor viz and lots of mud). I have shore dived L. Pontchartrain near N.O.--nothing there to see. The panhandle has quite a few charters, but they don't go out much Jan.-March. Here & there a charter West of P'cola in AL & MS.

 

[DogDiver]

I have used Florida Keys Dive Center for almost 10 years now. They have 42 foot Newton dive boats. After you have been diving for a while (49 years) you will chose the dive operator with the best boats. Been doing it for almost 50 years from the Great Lakes to the Keys to Roatan. The dive boats are a direct reflection on the shop or resort.
Enjoy [emoji41]


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[spectre184]

We were already certified but we used Sea Dwellers: Sea Dwellers Dive Center of Key Largo - Florida Keys Diving They have packages and one of the hotel they use is right next to where they dock their boat. We walked maybe 100 yards from our door to the boat. Nice thing with package is you call Sea Dwellers and they make hotel reservations for you.